


Poniard

by Hooda



Series: Anthology [11]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Cassian gets captured, Character Study, F/M, Jyn gets her hands on a lightsaber, Jyn is a bad ass bitch, Shit goes down, did i mention Jyn is bitch ass awesome, force, luke helps Jyn get Cassian back to the alliance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 06:15:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10893420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hooda/pseuds/Hooda
Summary: Force knows how strong she dedicates herself to being since Captain Andor’s disappearance.Luke can only imagine the terrible gripping sensation of fear and trepidation mixing in one’s chest. It was similar to what he felt when Leia cooly told him about Han’s carbon-imprisonment-turned-Hutt-trade.“Feel anything?” Her voice was low, grounded and stern, eyes set downward to the floor of the ship.He has to physically keep himself from flinching from the pinpricks of shooting Force energy when Jyn climbs up on the crate with him. For a moment, she settles into a straight-backed position that allows her to tip her head back against the sound walls of the ship. She closes her eyes and breathes calmly._______Cassian goes missing. Jyn leads a covert mission to find him. She also gets her hands on a lightsaber. Shit goes down.





	Poniard

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! It is the moment that everyone has been waiting for (or dreading, doesn't matter): the end of the "Anthology" series. This is the final installment one-shot to be posted to this series. Instead, I will now be expanding my wiring horizons to longer one-shots: 3,000+ stories.
> 
> As I wrote the "Anthology" one-shots, I realized that some of my plot ideas could be lengthened, written out more. But alas I had strictly retrained myself to 1,999 words or less, which was beginning to feel stifling after a while. I want to write more, I realized, write longer and more thought provoking stories.
> 
> So here it is: the last one-shot. It is the one I have been brooding over the longest, the most revealing and raw version of Jyn I had yet the opportunity to depict. It was also the most empowering. I sincerely hope you enjoy it!

 

Luke spends the entire trip in a corner of the barge atop a cargo crate with a blanket over his legs. His stark eyes were shut, hands folded neatly in his lap. With tranquil ease he slips into a trancelike meditation that lulls his mind from the rusted engine’s whirs in the background, or the inquisitive look on Chewie’s face. It all fades away into a distant oblivion.

With the release of his physical surroundings, Luke is able to reach out with his mind for the little pinpricks of light that sift through the galaxy. They were not the light of stars, no, but of life. With his eyes closed and his breathing flat, Luke could extend a part of his concentration into the spectrum that too many sentients were blind to feel around them.

“I am one with the Force and the Force is with me,” he sighs, breathily.

With the ship moving so quickly through light speed, Luke was also unfortunately confined to exploring to the width of the ship. He could feel bursts of life in the back of his mind - planets, small and big and laden with life - but he was most sensitive to the cool aura of his teammates.

Han’s was namely a mix of a unforetold exploration, brewing and waiting for the next adventure. The pilot was a tugging war of finding a place of permanence within the Alliance and pushing away the true reason why he stayed; versus the longing for monetary benefits as a smuggler in the shadows. It spiked at times or burrowed away, leaving Luke often quite curiously perplexed.

Luke’s mind drifts to another presence, one more powerful than Han or even Chewie’s. The Force took a particular liking to the younger woman who had outlived her internal wars. Sergeant Erso’s ambiance was supremely tighter than anyone else’s on the barge.

As Luke took to exploring the Force on his own, he began to notice patterns. The energy that surrounded all sentient life measured unequal between life forms. It wrapped itself around a person or living being like a blanket and stayed, like it was marking that being as one of its own, or as a prospect for a path through the light.

He had felt Leia’s Force sensitivity, a harrowing blend of suffocating grief and leadership pushing to be born. On multiple occasions he had felt the shift of the Force follow certain soldiers like a stray racing to catch up. It latched itself to those fighters who would eventually return to Base with blinding smiles of success and cheers echoing through the Alliance.

Jyn, for all her transgressions and headaches she gives Command, was one of the most tightly Force sensitive person Luke had ever felt contact with before. The Force practically drapes across the young woman’s shoulders, swaths her in the potential to be a leading force of hope.

More than anything, that substantial amount of energy trails through the ship, through the halls and between people’s legs until it reached Luke’s lightsaber. Where is was nestled securely in interworks of the blade handle’s body, the Kyber practically glows with the Force in Luke’s mind’s eye.

For a moment, the Force cinches a hairbreadth tighter around them.

He severs the intimate connection as the ships pulls itself out of the haze that was hyperspace. When he opens his eyes after a moment of collective breathing to reawaken his physical senses, the first thing Luke sees are a pair of dark green eyes. Jyn stands by the doorway of the cargo hold, arms across her chest like she could protect herself from whatever comes at her.

Force knows how strong she dedicates herself to being since Captain Andor’s disappearance. Luke can only imagine the terrible gripping sensation of fear and trepidation mixing in one’s chest. It was similar to what he felt when Leia cooly told him about Han’s carbon-imprisonment-turned-Hutt-trade.

“Feel anything?” Her voice was low, grounded and stern, eyes set downward to the floor of the ship.

Luke shook his head, despite the twinges of energy that sizzle against his skin from the shift the sergeant. Her brows furrow every so slightly but the amount of anger and confusion and longing for _something_ indescribable stifles the Force around them.

He has to physically keep himself from flinching from the pinpricks of shooting energy when Jyn climbs up on the crate with him. For a moment, she settles into a straight-backed position that allows her to tip her head back against the sound walls of the ship. She closes her eyes and breathes calmly.

_______

They find the containment complex within a series of rocks serving as Imperial and slum property. Han maneuvers them carefully through lanes between the rock moons, floating chunks that serve as working grounds for Imperial prisoners and black market trading areas for the less recognized folk.

Luke stands between Jyn and Han’s seats, watching them carefully navigate their way into a crummy loading dock that advertises mediocre cheap prices but has a direct open line to open space if there was a need to run. The Jedi’s hands tighten on the worn shoulder padding of the seats as he closes his eyes in concentration for a moment while Jyn flips a few last switches off.

“The Force; it’s almost too dark here to feel anything… positive.”

Han grunts before Jyn can say anything.

“Just make sure it’s not _too_ dark for you to find Andor’s trail.”

_______

“Han,” Jyn mutters into her comm, “we can’t find the cell.”

The sound of boots slapping against the cold dura-steel floors of the Imperial containment center reverberates. Luke leads the way ahead, lightsaber in hand and poised to be ignited at the first sign of Stormtroopers.

The comm buzzes hazily. “Down Sector B, to the right of the eating hall for Imp commanders, then down another left and two doors down.” Jyn whispers the instructions to herself as she grabs Luke arm when they almost run past a sign pointing to the eating hall.

The harsh white lights of the center burn their eyes. Sweat dots Jyn’s brow and her hands are slick against the handle of her blaster as she runs.

They round the last corner and Luke has to physically restrain a rather presumptuous Jyn when she barrels past him. At least a dozen white Stormtroopers lined the hall, guns poised and some barking orders to their comrades. They all stand right in front of Cassian’s supposed cell door.

Startlingly, Jyn shrinks her arm back into her body when she feels Luke reach for her blaster, her only protection. Green eyes meet dark ones but Luke simply tugs the lightsaber from his belt and places the heavier weapon into one of Jyn’s palms. He slips the blaster from her other hand.

“What am I supposed to do with _this,_ Luke,” she hisses, quietly.

“You’re a master with close combat. I’ve seen what you are capable of during training. You are ruthless and right now I need to manipulate the locks to the cell door; but I can’t do that unless I know you can protect my back.”

Jyn tightens her fingers around the smooth cylindrical metal. Overhead, the blaring lights begin to stutter. Down the hall, the Stormtroopers’ voices lower. The Force wraps itself so tight around Jyn to extents Luke cannot fathom.

“Get him out, ok?” she more orders than asks. Luke nods, very much wanting to leave the small space of air that was charging second by second into a crescendo of energy. The Force swirled maddeningly, sparking at the connection between Jyn and the lightsaber - her Kyber, her hope, her miracle.

Luke takes the lead. With his head held high, the Jedi steps around the corner of their small spot of momentary refuge. He takes three full steps out into the open before the Stormtroopers take action.

“Rebel!” the leader shouts. “Take fire!”

Just as they raise their blasters in unison, Jyn swings around the corner and bursts. With a yell of frustration, an almost long-forgotten battle cry used since childhood, Jyn ignites the lightsaber.

To some, the sight of a blade crackling in a demonstration of inconceivable power and energy was awe inspiring. Artists could capture the tilt of the handle, the determination in the swings or the definition of the wielders’s eyes.

For the Stormtroopers, the sight of a livid woman with a blade the same color as her eyes has them pressing the triggers to their blasters.

Luke sets off a few shots of his own, but ultimately focuses on prying the lock open with the Force. He wills himself to feel for the inner mechanics of the device, pressing on joints and wires until the door gives.

The lightsaber was a lethal instrument in Jyn’s hands. Heat from the crackling green blade touched her hand briefly. Like the truncheons, Jyn used her evasive techniques to pick of the soldiers. Her arm went up and the blade felt resistance for a moment as it severed through flesh and blood sizzled off.

Her parries turn to deadly swipes for the helmets, primarily the visors. Green meets white over and over, hacking ruthlessly and twisting with a power that Luke rarely can ever meet during training. They can barely scream for help or orders before a sizzling sensation slides through their body.

With only three soldiers left on them, the lock clicks. The door to the cell slides open quickly by the time Jyn has one more soldier down.

She was too occupied avoiding blaster shots when she hears Cassian mumble her name. “Jyn?” Luke drapes a bruised Cassian’s arm across his shoulders, helping prop the spy into a straight standing position. Jyn picks off one more soldier. The last one begins to hurl insults as well as shot at her.

The unmistakable sound of boots and comm orders resonates through the halls. Luke begins to turn Cassian and he around and lead them back to the waiting ship where Han and the others await them.

The Stormtrooper never stands a chance. Luke feels the hairs on the back of his neck rise before he can even turn around to see it happen.

Jyn spins the blade around so quickly the Stormtrooper barely registers his weapon cut from his hands. His mistake was lunging for the smaller woman.

The blade cuts upward just as the Stormtrooper lunges for Jyn’s shoulders. It pierces flesh, bone, and armor alike, jutting out his back in a fiery of green energy. His hands tighten numbly on Jyn’s shoudlers, almost slack.

Her brows furrow as she leans closer to the Stormtrooper, digging the blade deeper until his arm drops and he crumples to the ground, bleeding.

_______

Later, as they are safely on board and make the jump into hyperspace, Jyn trades Luke the lightsaber for Cassian’s unsteady weight. The captain slumps precariously onto the smaller woman, like he was trying to make his injuries seem less than they really were. He was fooling no one.

From the doorway of the common deck connecting to the cargo hold, Luke watches as Jyn helps Cassian down onto a bench. It was like she had never slaughtered a squad of soldiers as she wiped the blood from an exhausted Cassian’s battered face.

Luke turns away, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment, when Jyn kneels before Cassian to better wipe the grime from his sunken face.

The Force tingles, envelopes itself around the sergeant. Not for the first time Luke wonders what the eternal energy considered light or darkness. He had seen so many wonders in his short time within the Alliance.

But nothing compared to the arduous determination etched on Jyn’s face as she wielded a lightsaber. Nothing compared to the power of the Force that lived inside her. Nothing compared to the tender caresses of her hand against Cassian’s face.

Nothing but the stars could ever even compare.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much to the commenters who make my day! I truly couldn't have done it without your inspiration and constant support! If you have any recommendations for story ideas (one-shots), please feel free to share them with me and Ill be sure to flesh something out!
> 
> Comments - pos or neg - are always greatly appreciated! - H:D


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